Gov’t continues intervention in Sophia
The government is continuing interventions in various communities across Guyana to address concerns of citizens, an initiative that forms part of President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali’s ‘One Guyana’ vision.
The objective is to create a future in which all Guyanese, regardless of where they live, have equal opportunities.
Human Services and Social Security Minister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, and Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy conducted a ministerial outreach in ‘C’ field Sophia, on Wednesday, to assess the conditions of the roads, drainage, water, street lights, and other issues.
The ministers made stops at several cross streets and interacted with residents to address their concerns.
Minister Persaud assured the residents that the intention is to get everyone involved.
Minister Persaud assisted pensioners with locations for the $28,000 one-off cash grant distribution in Sophia. She also encouraged them to utilise the bank payment system to receive their pension payments.
Minister McCoy informed residents of the government’s housing assistance programme.
He said the administration remains committed to engaging with people from all communities and listening to their issues in order to make informed policy decisions.
“Our main mission here today, is an examination of roads and drainage in the Sophia community…That’s how we prioritise. So, the technical team would give us eventually the measurements, length, width,” Minister McCoy noted.
The minister made reference to the plethora of projects the government has rolled out to enhance the lives of citizens across the country, including the new Demerara River Bridge, Wales gas-to-shore project, and the Corentyne River Bridge.
“So, when we get these projects on stream, we’ll be able to lift up every single community. So, we are looking at these projects, as massive projects. But also, we don’t want to just focus on these projects without knowing that in the communities, there are drainage and road issues. We’re doing that as a government in communitiesa. In every community, we have to share the resources to ensure that everyone has something where all of the communities will be able to come up at a particular standard to have the basic facilities and amenities,” Minister McCoy related to the residents.
He emphasised, “we are attempting to make communities wholesome and comfortable, where we look out for each other and we make sure that we attend to the issues where the elderly can take a nice walk in the community…This is the government in collaboration with the communities…always working with us to bring developments.”
While responding to the residents’ concerns, the ministers urged them to take advantage of the government-sponsored training opportunities under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) and the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL).